Text message voting with AT&T wireless was operating. Casting votes also remained available online at artprize.org, by mobile browser and iPhone app.

Viewers downtown can vote at The Hub during ArtPrize hours.

Nearly 72 hours after the opening of voting on Wednesday, some 20,000 registered voters had cast well over 61,000 votes.

While voter registration was well on its way toward reaching last year's total of 37,000, the total votes cast was much further away from the 334,000 votes cast during the entire 18 days of the inaugural ArtPrize.

Last year, ArtPrize used a shared 878787 short code that required voters to text the word "vote" before entering the unique five-digit number to cast an "up" or "down" vote for any participating artist.

Earlier this year, ArtPrize had been informed that all cell phone carriers had approved using 808080 for text voting that would have eliminated the need to enter "vote" first.

But in a memo circulated Friday to venues, ArtPrize's central office said that they were notified the day before the event that several carriers were waiting on their legal departments to finalize

"ArtPrize has pursued every avenue available to rush that finalization,(sic) and they can come online at any time now," according to Laurel Stanley, director of user experience.